Neener Neener

“OH MY GOSH, YEAH!” Ella screeched.
“What?” I asked, touching my head as I walked into the room.
She and Nudge were sitting on the couch just chattering on and on like two girls. Or two Nudges.
But Nudge was jumping up and down in her seat. “Truth or Dare!” she exclaimed.
“Oh, God,” Fang groaned, coming up behind me. I jumped.
“Oh, come on, Max! It’ll be so much fun!” Ella wined.
I sent an annoyed glance at Fang.
“Truth or Dare?!” Gazzy and Angel walked into the room. “Oh, Max, you should play too,” Angel said, shaking my sleeve.
“Wait, what?” Iggy asked, walking into the room.
“Truth or Dare,” I said.
Iggy gave a half grin. “Well, this should be amusing,” he said with a straight face, and went to sit on the couch beside Ella.
Fang and I took a couch for ourselves. He did his best to not touch me and encourage teasing. The Gasman, Angel, Nudge and Total sat on the other couch. Dr. Martinez was not in sight.
Ella twitched. “May I go first?”
“Sure,” I said, looking at her curiously.
She smiled, and I saw how much she looked like our mother. I looked more like Jeb, as my luck would have it. But, hey, he isn’t that bad looking anyway.
“Angel, Truth or Dare?” Ella asked.
“Dare,” Angel said, knowing what Ella had in mind.
Ella tapped her lips happily with her fingers. “Read Fang’s mind.’
Angel looked at Fang’s alarmed eyes. She smiled evilly. “Fang was just thinking, as he was staring off into space, that he thinks that someone’s probably gonna dare him to kiss Max, and how he’s sooo gonna kill me after this,” she finished, smiling.
Fang scowled. “Ella, Truth or Dare?”
“Truth,” she said, obviously not afraid, and avoiding the oh-so-dangerous Dare.
Fang thought. I guessed he had had a dare in mind. “Oh…who do you like?” he asked.
Ella blushed and Angel giggled. “She doesn’t want to say,” Angel explained.
“Oh, come on, Ella,” Nudge laughed, “Remember, it’s for the fun of it.”
Ella looked down. “Iggy,” she muttered, shaking her head and avoiding his eyes.
Fang smirked. “Sorry, I can’t hear you, maybe a little louder?”
“Iggy,” she said, shrill.
A different kind of expression crossed Iggy’s face. Ella looked up and into his face, but he couldn’t see her. “I like you too,” he said.
“You what?” Ella staggered, astonished.
Fang laughed, “Iggy shared this piece of info with me earlier,” he whispered to me.
I laughed.
Ella was still flushed. “Nudge, Truth or Dare?” she mumbled.
Nudge thought. “Hmm…” she debated, “Dare,” she ended slowly, a questioning look on her face.
“I dare you to get a box of raisins and put some raisins between your toes and walk around!” she said with a straight expression.
Nudge burst out laughing and hopped up from her spot and ran into the kitchen, flinging open the cabinet and grabbing a box of raisins. “Hold on, hold on,” she muttered, opening it and sticking each one between her toes.
When she finished everyone but Fang was laughing really hard. He just had a wide smile spread across his angular face. Nudge got up and did a dance, and a few pieces of dried fruit out between their hiding places. One landed in Gazzy’s face, and he totally freaked out.
“EW! EW! EW! EW! EW!” he screeched, slapping his hands over his face repeatedly before finally stopping. “Gross.”
Angel had fallen over on the couch laughing and holding her stomach. “It’s too much! It’s too much!” she gasped.
When the thunder cleared, Nudge asked me, “Truth or Dare, Max?”
“Truth,” I said quickly, knowing what she would ask me.
She pouted. “Okay, what was your most embarrassing moment?”
I flushed furiously, glancing over at Fang, who was grinning at me like an idiot. I smiled at him and said, “When I got my chip removed and I told Fang I loved him.”
Fang spoke up. “Oh, no, no, no. You didn’t say just that. How much, Max? How much?”
I made a face at him. “I already answered my question,” I said snidely. “Gazzy, Truth or Dare?”
“Dare.”
“I dare you to go get some tidy-whities from your room and put them on your head and keep them there for the rest of the game,” I laughed to myself.
Gazzy’s eyebrows furrowed. “How do you know I have tidy-whities?”
I tapped my lips. “Let’s just say you need a belt.”
He glowered and went to his room and got a clean pair of briefs and put them on his head. I burst out laughing with tears in my eyes at his expression. It was like, ‘I hate you’ mixed with ‘you suck’.
But he obediently sat down and looked at Iggy. “Truth or Dare, Ig?”
“Dare,” he said. Bring. It. On.
Oh, dear. I just knew where he was going with this.
“What color are Ella’s cheeks?” Gazzy asked.
Ella flushed involuntarily. Iggy got up and touched her face. “Pink.”
“Okay,” I said, “Moving on?”
Iggy pulled away and sat back down on his couch.
“I…think we’re done here,” Fang said, starting to get up from the couch.
Iggy stopped him, shoving him back down into a sitting position. “I still haven’t asked you your question, kid.”Fang scowled.